User blog:Mothman Historian/Mothman Mythology
Submitted for your approval, A seven foot tall winged humanoid with piercing red eyes that has made its way into the sight and the minds of the citizens of Point Pleasant. In the fall of 1966, the creature known as the Mothman took flight and spread its Wings Over West Virginia. John Keel was a Fortean. A Fortean is a person who is inspired and influenced by American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena, Charles Fort. I'm not so sure that I'd be considered a Fortean. I've only read of Charles Fort second hand. If anything I'm a Keelean or Keelist, a disciple of John Keel. I've been greatly inspired by his work ever since I stumbled across a ton of Mothman books in the school library. Charles Fort once said "One measures a circle, beginning anywhere". I've found that The Mothman legend is much the same. It has a way of engulfing everything and becoming all encompassing. You quickly find that Its all connected. With concepts like native american curses, world war two munitions plants, bunkers, polluted wild life areas, bridge collapses, museums, statues and festivals all be associated with the creature. You can also find your way to Mothman through the study of UFOs, unknown animals, West Virginia History or, most commonly, folklore and urban legend. I think its safe to say that all roads in West Virginia lead to The Mothman. I think that the best kind of fiction is the kind that makes you realize; you don't know ifs its real or not, stories that make you question. Folklore and legend can sometimes even be better than fiction because It has its roots in reality. Its real people sighting false things cloaked in emotion and fear. Folklore is simply the stories of the people, a grand epic able to be conveyed by a simple person. It changes, evolves and lives on for decades No one person can own folklore. It is the ideas of the people, all culminating into one entity. It builds like a snowball rolling down a mountain. Even though I can't believe in the Mothman because of lack of real evidence, I sometimes think of The Mothman as if it were real in order to study to the legend. Asking questions like "If Mothman were real would it be biologically possible for him to fly?" or "If Mothman were real what would his flight pattern be?". This is a form of research I call "Hypothetical investigating". Its when a skeptically minded person researches something knowing that it is most likely false yet treating it as if it is hypothetically real in order to better understand it and collect data. This works best with legends and folklore of course because of the narrative structure of the claims. I find that it also makes it more interesting and entertaining. When studying the folklore of Mothman I find myself thinking in the hypothetical a lot. You can notice that I use a lot of "What If" questions. When you say the phrase "What If" you can literally say anything afterwards. For example: "What if in other dimensions, human flight suits are the norm and in 1966 someone traveled through a window into our dimension?!" or "What if in '66 they chose the small town of Point Pleasant West Virginia as the best place to test a secret new aircraft and it had red fog lights?". I think that this line of thinking can produce interesting and maybe thought provoking questions. Its like Mothman Witness Connie Carpenter's husband Keith Aeiker said "What If? . . . and If's a big question". As an investigator and Mothman historian, I do have my own head canon of things I consider to make sense and work in context of the folklore. There are certain explanations and things I favor in the legend. For example I hypothetically view Mothman as a non-biological entity possibly from another dimension. Other people view him as a number of different things from unknown animal to demon. At this point I think the Mothman is growing from a legend into a mythology as it accumulates and grows wider in scope. As the year 1966 becomes farther and farther away, the legend is bound to evolve. Certain aspects have already evolved. Joe Nickell pointed out that at some point The Mothman sprouted arms. Another thing is that some depictions of Mothman focus more on the name and try to make him very moth like while others stick to the actual source material and depict him as the witnesses describe. This more "mothy" depiction of Mothman can be traced back to Artist Frank Frazetta who did the amazing cover art for John Keel's book. The influence of this more literal interruption of Mothman can be seen in Bob Roach's Statue and kind of In The Mothman Prophecies movie as well. The redish blur that appears in front of the car is clearly in the shape of a moth and not so much a Mothman. The creature that the witnesses described was a winged humanoid with red eyes not a moth. The Mothman is a only name given to him by the newspapers in reference to Batman. The Mothman is not a moth or in any way moth-like as counter initiative as that may be. If anything he would look most like a half human, half bird or owl. There are obvousily things that are still being contested or debated in the Mothman legend such as the inclusion of Indrid Cold. Some still disagree on if it is or isn't related. Indird Cold was a normal looking human being that communicated telepathy. He appeared to Woodrow Derenberger outside of Parkersburg West Virginia in a cigar shaped ship. The reason its thought to be connected is because it happened in 1966, John Keel investigated it and wrote about it in The Mothman Prophecies then the film adaption ran all the way with it and seemed to take up most the film covering Indrid Cold. The movie implies that Mothman is Indrid cold which is just a weird thing to do. Most researchers, including myself, don't consider this canon to the legend. Mothman isn't a shapeshifter and I reject this whole Idea of "Different people see it differently". Mothman is a very specific claim, a 7 foot tall winged humanoid with red eyes. This doesn't match the description to Indrid Cold in anyway. These ideas could still be related in the same way that Mothman is related to the UFO flap. These strange events all happened at this time and culminates in the bridge disaster. John Keel and The people of Point Pleasant surely thought that these events were connected so sure why not? When I think of what I consider Canon, I usually go with what I think makes sense in context, what the witnesses report and what John Keel found out. Hes the main investigator so he and the witnesses would know better than anyone. Another thing that people are not sure whether to connect or not is The Flatwoods Monster which is another West Virginia Folklore that happened in Braxton County 1952. Some people think that its the same entity because they're both at least 7 foot tall and have red glowing attributes but I don't think its enough to say that. The Flatwoods Monster has a red glowing face not eyes and it doesn't have wings. Its also thought to be an alien and possibly a machine. I think that's Its definitely not the same creature but once again it could still be connected some how. The legends do share some of similarities such as the name Hyer. One of the witnesses of The Flatwoods Monster was a young boy named Tommy Hyer then later in The Mohman Legend there was a newspaper reporter named Mary Hyre who worked with John Keel talking to witnesses and reporting on sightings. The name Hyre is spelled differently between the two people yet pronounced the same. There was also a man named Frank Hyer who was sent to the old West Virginia State Penitentiary in 1931. He was executed for murdering his wife. However, when the trap door beneath him was opened and his full weight was put onto the noose, he was instantly decapitated. This marked the last time the public could attend these hangings. The Moundsville prison is considered a paranormal place. It closed down in 1995 after it was deemed cruel and unusual punishment. It executed 94 people and it sulfured inhuman medical practices, escapes and riots. It also just so happens to have a painting of Mothman in it painted by MTV when they visited for filming. Strange West Virginia Folklore painted atop strange West Virginia History. All roads lead to The Mothman. I think that, for some reason, humans have a need to create animals similar to themselves yet better in some way. A larger than life, mythologized entity. One of my teachers in high-school told me that when he was a teenager he was obessed with Mothman and even believed he was Mothman or a reincarnation of Mothman. Mothman is like a superhero, he has the power to fly and predict the future. No wonder people want to be like him. No wonder people say "I am the MothMan". We've made Mothman in our image. Mothman is an alluring idea. One of the overall goals of science is predictive capability. We want to better understand the universe. We try to predict disasters so that we can hopefully prevent them in some way. We try to predict weather for own convenience but there are always flaws in the system and we've never achieved true predictive capability. What if The MothMan turned out to be the answer? What if we really could prevent tragedies like The Silver Bridge Collapse by somehow heading the warning of an omen of doom? Its an interesting thought and maybe that's another one of the reason people like The Mothman. Some people are interested in learning about Mothman, researching it and also trying to spot it in real life. Like the Monster Hunters who search for Bigfoot, people actually want to witness The Mothman. They cautiously want to see it just like the many cars that traveled in to The TNT area in 1966 after the first report. Its clearly just a social event, bored people, or people who are just really interested in the creature want it to be real and want to actually see it and sure why not because it never harmed anyone in the legend other than maybe Bandit the dog. Its a omen of a disaster to come not a threat to humans in itself. I view Mothman as a neutral thing but the argument can of course be made that he is a positive, doing a great service to humanity by warning them. That argument is much easier to make than the idea of him being a negative because hes not the cause of any of the disasters that happen in his wake. When I first went into the TNT area, I honestly did hope in the back of my mind that maybe I'd see something. I genuinely did have that kind of conformation bias while walking along the path at the time. Even the slightest sound or movement in the bushes made me think that I'd hopefully stumble upon the source of my obsessions, The Mothman. I just hoped that if I did, he was actually as peacefully as I thought and not as terrifying or traumatic as described by witnesses. Of course, I didn't seen him because he probably doesn't exist. No one wants Mothman to be real more than me but unfortunately, reality doesn't always coincide with what we want and so we must accept sad truths. People in Modern day Point Pleasant view him as a happy town mascot unlike the people back in 1966 who seemed to be genuinely terrified and brought guns into The TNT area to possibly try and kill the creature. Most researchers today, including myself, think that if he is real that Investigators shouldn't try to harm The Mothman but instead just get proof because hes not hurting anyone. Mothman is viewed as a very sympathetic and often misunderstood beast like King Kong or Frankenstein and his monster. People seem to have sympathy and empathy for the Mothman. I see why people think this way. Mothman is humanoid and it leads to questions like: Is he sentient? Does he have a consciousness? Is it morally wrong to kill The Mothman? Does he have feelings? Just how intelligent is The Mothman? He has never spoken but Eyewitness Mary Mallette said she heard him squeak like a big mouse so does this mean he's purely animalistic or just unable to speak? Eyewitness Linda Scarberry said "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you". So, does his presents, his warnings, count as his speech? Mothman is known to communicate through premonition or nightmares like the ones that plagued The people of West Virginia in 1966. He has the ability to put visions in people's mind. The reporter Mary Hyre had dreams of Christmas presents floating in the water and then the bridge collapse happened that December. Even though Mothman is the bringer of bad news, people seek him out. I think that if searching for Bigfoot is like deer or bear hunting then searching for The Mothman should be like bird watching. They're more peaceful and thoughtful about it. They appreciate the creature they are looking for. Bird watchers don't kill or hurt the birds and the birds are very unlikely to harm them either. Just imagine Mothman investigators sitting on hills in West Virginia with binoculars looking up for The Mothman. I actually think that we should make The Mothman the official state bird of West Virginia. I don't see why that shouldn't be allowed. Mothman has quickly become one of my favorite characters fictional or otherwise. Mothman may even be my favorite thing ever and regardless of what you think of Mothman, since 1966 he has filled the thoughts and imaginations of West Virginia. May The Mothman forever fly. The Mothman will never die. Category:Blog posts